1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to casino table poker games and to table designs and associated apparatus that implements, supports and enhances the play of the casino table poker game.
2. Background of the Art
The growth of the gaming industry, in particular, gambling casinos has been very significant over the last decade. The industry has come to recognize the need for new games and new gambling concepts. It also recognizes that the new technologies available need to be integrated in order to improve their gaming environment. It also recognizes the need to become a more efficient gaming provider.
The state gaming control boards of Nevada and New Jersey (which have traditionally been slow to approve any new games or gambling concepts) have changed their philosophy so dramatically that today they actively encourage the trial and acceptance of new games and gambling concepts. The problem with introducing new games has always been the basic criteria for mass-market gambling:
Easy-to-learn game rules.
Strategies must be easy to master and not favor an expert disproportionately.
Games must have a short duration between the start (the bet) and the finish (the payoff).
The payoff structure must be enticing to players.
The game must be sufficiently fair so that a player has an opportunity to win sometimes, and the casino should not have an unreasonable advantage.
The game must be susceptible to security and surveillance so that is protected from cheating and tampering.
The casino's hold or advantage must be demonstrated to be sufficiently worthwhile that a casino can afford to operate and maintain the game with a profit.
Over the years, there have been many different types of games that have attempted to satisfy the demands of the gaming industry. These games have ranged the gamut from those involving great mental prowess to games involving merely chance. Nevertheless, there is still a strong interest in game concepts that create real excitement.
More specifically, with many games the players are placed in the position of passive observers. This is actually most true of the more expensive games that employ electronic components and the like which may or may not involve any skill on the part of the player. Still further, the game development or play is almost always viewed as unrealistic (e.g., only involving luck) at best.
Because of this fact, such expensive games are often difficult to market and discarded after minimal play even when purchased by the consumer. Moreover, even when use continues, such games have consistently lacked any relationship to the excitement as well as the strategy and planning that should be the characteristic of any game. While it is generally recognized that decision making in game play is of paramount importance, there has yet to be a game that places players in a realistic decision making capacity.
One game of interest over the years is poker. Various attempts have been made to enhance play of poker over the years. Examples of such attempts are described in the following U.S. patent references, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference:
U.S. Pat No. 4,743,022, Wood, second chance poker method; U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,134, Suttle et al., electronic five card poker game where cards are given to the players one at a time; U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,049, Tomaszewski, five card poker game where up to two cards are drawn; U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,109 Gumina, instant poker game card; U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,915, Miller, six card, two hand video poker game; U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,128, Marquez, six cards, three hand poker game; U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,025, Sklansky et al., three hands, two card poker game where each player chooses one hand and five communal cards are dealt face up; U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,199, Gumina, interactive video/casino poker game-draw poker, hold'em poker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,404, Joshi et al., multiplay video poker game in which the player's sub-hands are compensated to increase the payoff level of the winning hands; U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,407, Hofberg et al., casino poker game.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,451 to Fulton involves a modified poker game where the player is dealt pairs of cards, where one card is optional and the other mandatory. The player is permitted to exchange at each round the optional card until five cards are selected. The resulting five card hand is then evaluated for payoff against a fairly standard payoff table.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,194 to Wolf deals the player seven cards. The player then forms two hands: a five card hand (e.g., a front hand), and a two card hand (e.g., a back hand). The rules for playing this game are quite elaborate, including requiring each player to arrange the hand so that the rank of the back hand is greater than the rank of the front hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,907 describes a casino table poker game comprising a method of playing a poker variation card game involving multiple wagers using a single standard deck of cards, with said game involving standard poker hand rankings and comprising the steps of:
each player placing a wager to participate in the game;
a dealer dealing cards face down to each player and at least one common card face down for use by all participating players;
giving each participating player the chance, before any discard, to inspect the cards the player received to determine if the cards qualify for the discard exception under certain specified conditions;
restricting all participating players whose initial cards do not qualify for the discard exception to the option to either play or fold;
requiring all players who wish to continue to play a hand to discard one of their cards and to make a second bet;
giving each player whose initial cards do qualify for the discard exception, the standard option to either fold or to discard and play, as well as the improved option to ignore the discard rules and declare the hand an immediate winner;
showing the common card(s) and determining the highest poker hand held by each player;
determining what payout, if any, each player is entitled to receive according to that player's wagers and the pre-selected payout schedule.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,430 describes a method of playing a poker game comprising one player being selected as a player-bank comprising the steps of:
the player-banker wagering a desired amount designated as the bank amount;
the other players wagering desired amounts each;
dealing three hole cards to each player;
each player discarding one of the three hole cards;
dealing five cards face up as common cards;
each player in turn, from a predetermined first player resolving his wager with the player bank based on poker hand priority by selecting the best five card hand of the seven cards consisting of the player's two hole cards and the five common cards;
and wherein a higher hand wins over the player-bank and otherwise the player-bank wins.
Some of these games are variations of the standard poker game known as Hold'Em. The game of Hold'Em is described in The Complete New Hoyle Revisited, 1991, Doubleday, New York, N.Y., pages 24-25. The game is played with (usually, although in private games this is done by agreement) an ante bet made by each player before the players receive two cards, face-down. These are the player's hole cards or pocket cards. After the hole cards are dealt, the deck is temporarily put aside and a first betting interval occurs. After the first betting interval has occurred, the dealer provides three cards in the middle of the table, face-up. These three cards are called the flop or the common cards. The deal is then again interrupted for a second betting interval. The dealer then provides a fourth card, face-up, followed by a third betting interval. At the end, the dealer provides a fifth card, face-up. The fifth card is followed by a betting interval. The player's construct the highest ranked five-card hands with their two hold cards and cards from the flop. The highest ranked hand is the winner. A variation of this game is Texas Hold'Em in which a button is passed around the table by the house dealer to designate players as the dealer for purposes of initiating wagers.
Some casinos attempt to construct games where players are not playing against each other. This is done to minimize adversarial conditions at gaming tables and because the ability of the house to control its take is limited to a rake from the betting, which is annoying to many players. A variation on Hold'Em known as Hold'Em challenge has been designed to make the game more acceptable to casinos and players, and this game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,025 (Sklansky). The underlying game is similar to Texas Hold'Em, with three sets of two player's cards dealt face-up to positions on the table, and five flop cards dealt face-down. The players then are able to bet, before viewing the flop cards, on which two-card player's hand will form the highest ranked hand in combination with the flop. The wager structure is designed to provide a sufficient return to the house while offering a sufficient frequency of wins to keep players interested in the game. Although the game has attracted the interest of players, there are significant security issues and game control issues in the play of the game, and apparatus needs to be designed to implement play of the game.
There is a significant amount of gaming apparatus that has been developed for use in the play of casino table games. The most successful addition to table gaming apparatus has been the automatic card shuffler, such as those invented by Shuffle Master Gaming, Inc. as represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,807,884; 5,261,667; 5,303,921; 5,695,189; and 6,068,258. These automatic shuffling devices have increased the frequency of casino table card games being played and have increased security and control over cards in casinos. These devices have become more sophisticated and have increased sensing and monitoring capability, having microprocessors included within the devices. Additional shuffling apparatus with microprocessors, sensors, and more sophisticated electronics include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,019,368; 5,810,355; 5,356,145; 5,275,411 and the like. These intelligent shufflers have the various capacities to detect jammed cards in the shuffler, count the number of cards dealt into individual player/dealer hands, assign cards to specific separation slots, and perform other tasks.
Other gaming apparatus that has been developed includes coin, token or wager sensing devices and jackpot display systems such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,015,347; 5,795,225; 5,794,964 and 5,544,893. These types of systems indicate that a wager has been placed by a particular player for a particular type of wager. These bet indicating systems have been useful for particular casino table games, but they are not necessarily a universal solution for all issues in security and bet identification in all casino table wagering games.